Monday, 1 July 2013

Tour de France

The first ever Tour de France in 1903

The first Tour de France took place this day 110 years ago. It ran from
the 1st July 1903 – 19th July 1903. The race was invented
to increase circulation of the newspaper L’Auto and to win fans from its
competitor Le Vèlo. It was made up of six stages and was much longer than it is
today. However, the route was mostly flat with just the one mountain. The cyclists
did not have to complete all six stages but instead could pick the ones they
wanted to do. 60 cyclists entered the first Tour de France. It was won by Maurice
Garin after having completed the event circuit at an average speed of 25 km/h. He
was rewarded with prize money of 6,075 francs.

The first ever Tour de France in 1903

The French cyclist who has won the most races won his
first Tour de France in 1978.
Hinault won the Tour four times (79, 81, 82 and 85).

Bernard Hinault

Eddy Merckx holds the record for most Tour de France
stage wins (34 wins).Lance
Armstrong held the title for most wins as overall leader (7 wins), but had them
taken away as it was discovered that he had been using doping at the time.The next highest total number
of wins - five - is shared between Miguel Indurain, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard
Hinault and Eddy Merckx.

Lance Armstrong

Doping is not a new occurrence. Early riders consumedalcoholand usedether, to dull the pain. Over
the years they began to increase performance and theUnion Cycliste Internationaleand governments enacted policies to
combat the practice.

The Tour de France has been held annually
since its first edition in 1903 except for when it was stopped for the two World Wars. This year is the 100th
Tour de France.

Tour de France

Do you take part
or organise your own cycling events? If so why not create an event page on
EventElephant and allow attendees to register online.

Like us on Facebook

Receive all updates via Facebook. Just Click the Like Button Below

▼

Subscribe To EventElephant Blog

About EventElephant

EventElephant is a piece of online registration software. It is a self-service product that makes it very simple for anyone to be in full control of getting as many people as possible to register and attend their event.

Whether you are organising a free party for your friends, a 'paid for' conference for delegates or a reunion for old colleagues; EventElephant makes it as easy as it gets to set up a great looking single of multi page event website, send out email invitations and sign up online registrations and payments.

Organisers make huge savings on cost and time whilst turbo charging attendee numbers and enriching the pre-event experience. It's a recipe for running successful events.